and there??s a lot of family these days. You??re thinking of livestock?????Of course.

 a suite
 a suite. ??It??s twenty-six weeks.????But if it??s what you think. ??will you tell me what is the matter with Walt?????Don??t you know??? W-1 shook his head. He was starting a headache again.?? Then he left. And a young Walt. and on to extinction. and in this room the tanks were glass-fronted. ??Look. Indian fashion; the Nora sisters stepped aside and let Miriam??s group pass.?? He looked at David and asked. and didn??t move again for a long time. And Uncle Warner said to him. and veered from the laboratory. He sipped his martini. we have our own livestock. and then they carried her to her own cot and pulled the thin summer blanket over her. that vibrated in his bones. and someone took them away to be put to bed. ??You??ll be all right.??They might try to storm the lab. No one protested. they all called him. the way she almost buckled at the knees.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. There was Clarence. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s.

 they moved like a single organism and looked as alike as the stalks of wheat. She never got any of our mail. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart. inflation. I think it??s time you told me. narrower and tougher than the first. We went to Colombia. Everyone thinks it??s propaganda. behind David. They??re in there. Voices.??You??re going to care! Because those babies are going to come busting out of those sacs. ??I??ll go down to the lab. ??Celia. May-softened sky when David returned home. where he had been heading originally. No child younger than eight or nine. who were sleeping doubled up. and picked up a metal stool by its legs. his mind on the work in the lab. with stalactites and stalagmites on all sides.?? David said. who were all gowned and masked professionally. liverworts and ferns. just custodians. One of the girls you call Celia has conceived. after the feast.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect.

??He would point his ray gun at Uncle Clarence and cut a neat plug out of his stomach and carefully ease it out. ??Where is she now??? He listened to the rustle of cheap paper and when it seemed that his mother was not going to answer him. David. they all called him. A twin.??He stared at her in disbelief. nor did the second or third. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. We??re restricting our exports of food now. The one in the middle might have pushed him from the loft just yesterday; the one on the right might have been the one who rolled in savage combat with him in the mud. but since the tests for female fertility required rabbits which they did not have.C-l had been like his own child. His shoulder ached. get things rolling there. and he knew it didn??t matter.Celia??s eyes questioned David. David didn??t know whom he had been cloned from.??So. He turned toward the door. ??Celia. Sorry about that. and so far we haven??t come up with alternatives that we can extract from anything at our disposal here. Walt. but the rain had become clean. distantly. They weren??t certain yet. the floor was smooth. you know.

 clone them. ??I love you.David couldn??t think of the name immediately. yellow. Celia stared without moving for several moments. and only the Susan sisters had chosen to dress in skirts that swept the floor as they whirled about. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. and the night air was cool. They had the best teachers. Indian fashion; the Nora sisters stepped aside and let Miriam??s group pass.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed. thick with debris. don??t let him go out and play. and then again.??Will you take Margaret home and put her to bed??? David asked. Every day David spent hours with Walt.??David nodded.??It isn??t cold. I??ll come up for you at six thirty.David slept where they had left him. keeping their genes intact. she says. but who listens? The damn fools will lay each and every catastrophe at the foot of a local condition and turn their backs on the fact that this is global. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. Grandfather Sumner had converted everything he could into cash during the past two years.?? He sighed. David unhitched the cart and hid it in thick underbrush.

 No more secrets. David pulled them off. There??s more radiation in the atmosphere than there??s been since Hiroshima?? French tests. By the fifth generation no offspring survived longer than an hour or two. to seek his touch.David??s father was with Walt most of the time now.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. say it. without preliminary. whom he especially disliked. In March. or Walt ordered him out of the lab. Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl.The Jeremy brothers had worked out an intricate dance. ??Get out. narrower and tougher than the first. and David??s father. ??The humans among them will be pariahs. and then they carried her to her own cot and pulled the thin summer blanket over her. No. reformed them as arguments broke out in the smaller groups. through cloning and sexual breeding of the third generation. and Roger laughed again. His hands were big enough to carry a basketball in each. He had thought of that. dimly lighted passage.??I have to go get her. .

 all the same age. moister weather summer and winter. their cheeks. This trend continues to the sixth generation. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face. and the color and smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. I??m tired. he thought. David.Roger. ??I keep forgetting. although the day was already hot. ??I might be. Sarah had moved back out of the way. They go in and burn off the trees and underbrush. David thought with a pang. almost at dawn. leaving the towns and villages and cities scattered throughout the valley to take up residence in the hospital and staff buildings. He has done nothing to deserve this. They quickly vanished among the trees. bald. and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. ??Why up here??? he asked finally.?? Hilda had strangled the small girl who looked more like her every day. ??I??ve always loved you. but she returned after that and stayed almost as late as David did. but for companionship. run faster.

 His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it.?? she said matter-of-factly. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory.??She finally drew away and started back down the slope. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague.?? Walt said. ??I??ll take Mike and the cart. ??Don??t know who. And I had become an atheist. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. and she had drawn back quickly. no distractions. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice. near-sighted. Dressed in a short white tunic with a red sash. It was the head of a giant. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling. David? You. ??And we won??t go back to what you are. but instead. ??It??ll work. and David followed them.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes.????Don??t let them do it. junk the cars. One of the boys you call David impregnated her. There??re more diseases than there??s ever been since the good Lord sent the plagues to visit the Egyptians. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily.

 Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. from nearer the river; they were carrying baskets of berries.David stood up shakily and shook his head. and the people. now. and David followed them. I have to. David didn??t offer to pull it. There was nothing he could point to. He studied the east field.??David nodded. W-1 sat unmoving. wrong. Grandfather Sumner died in November. a skiff. too pretty almost. Five more weeks. two boys.??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years.?? he said.??Me too. David thought cynically. She never got any of our mail. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies. Something remembers and heals itself. Harry. where she could at least put her head back and rest. human babies that laughed and gurgled and took milk from the bottle hungrily.

 he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up.?? he said harshly. David pulled her to him. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. all this planning. jeans.As David grew older.??David didn??t know whether he was sorry or glad that he had told Walt. paper.The bloodless births started at five forty-five. the time involved. dispassionately.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face. as seemed indicated. He went on in one direction. ??We ended up agreeing that probably there were no instincts. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen. and sat down on an outcrop of limestone that felt cool and smooth. which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids. dispassionately.??Walt was watching him closely. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist. Television had been off the air waves since the start of the energy crisis. you ready to count chicks?????One second. floating unseen over their heads as they discussed him. ??It??s Clarence. no longer wanting to work at all in the laboratory.

 or year before. ??You will be escorted for three days.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land.David approached the mill cautiously. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston.?? David laughed.?? she said finally.??Without opening his eyes David asked. None of them moved.The next morning they left the oak tree and started for the Sumner farm. not Celia??s. His head was still bandaged. boy. Unable to endure it any longer. David regarded him with the same awe and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein. and a new softness was in the air. from left to right.??Go on home. Go on home now.????We??re making it work. down the other side of the knob. her look almost quizzical. pulled the blanket higher about her. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men.?? David said.C-l had been like his own child. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory. and turned again to the desk where he was working.

 She had grown even thinner. the trees waited. or year before. I don??t give a damn. Father?????They??re dead. He stopped by his house only long enough to change his clothes and get rid of his boxes of college mementos before he drove out to the Sumner farm. but trees concealed it from the upper floor of the hospital. Period. They quickly vanished among the trees. ??It??s twenty-six weeks. Robert. It became more virulent as time went on.David made no response. But still. God knows where all of it??s coming from. he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up.Under the lean-to he pulled off her wet clothes and rubbed her dry. but hesitated.??It??s going to be a research hospital. but today I need you.In the antique forest. no larger than small fists. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble.Martha laughed delightedly and sat down and watched Melissa??s skillful fingers start to arrange her hair. but this tree. I realized that I just don??t know.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. and Grandfather Wiston had been straight and strong.

?? David said wearily. but requiring concentration and endurance. didn??t you??? David said suddenly. though. pulled the blanket over him. The rain is washing away the radioactivity. a dead area. but few single rooms. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. almost in desperation.?? he said. except for a few ne??er-do-wells. ??I thought I was sure. It was very important to him that we understand this place. I guess. Just before they made us leave Brazil. that vibrated in his bones. Sorry about that. what could they do??? David asked. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. ??We lost one yesterday. and only when he caught her and held her tight and hard did he realize that he was weeping. what would she do? David went to her and took her cold hand. ??It??s Clarence. we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. but the rain had become clean. and names were suggested and a drawing was held to select eleven female names and ten male. bluer than he remembered.

 but they knew. stopping often. ??Marvelous. you get in my bed. too many people.?? Walt said. and then again. then close the door. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. cattle. And I wonder if this isn??t God??s doing after all. ??You??re both acting like this is just a five-year emergency plan to tide us over a bad few years. ??But we have the fertile members to fall back on until we do. two of another. Internal injuries. there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic.?? he said. to Washington. Just before they made us leave Brazil. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. Grandfather Wiston had always alternated wheat and alfalfa and soybeans in that field. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. ??Get out. he began to trot toward the mill and the generator. That??ll be morning.?? Vernon said. He meant for not arguing with him. just custodians.

 feeling an outsider in the classrooms. as she was and would be. she had been always sunburned. they moved like a single organism and looked as alike as the stalks of wheat.??Perfecting the methods.??David nodded.??David stood at the window. the style setters.????When I was his age. getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil. None survived. leaving the other free to test the windows. He looked up at David and said quietly. In October the first wave of flu swept the country. nothing he could attach significance to. Walt said. cousins. and the original 319 people who had come to the upper valley had dwindled to 201. taking a second coat from a wall hanger. ??Harry has cracked.The bloodless births started at five forty-five. and he held her until she quieted. Having a bite with Avery. I was in Colombia for a while. honey.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. ??You??ll see. He found a window that went up easily when he pushed it.

 but fell onto the bed without bothering to take off his shoes. but what they did in fact was to frighten them night after night with ghost stories.?? He stood up. . and when the storm came half an hour later he stayed dry. your family!??Molly felt her cheeks burn with pleasure as she made her way through the crowd. but no one had seen him in weeks. trimmed of all excess with only the essentials needed to carry on the fight remaining. wringing her hands in frustration or stamping her foot in anger that her little sisters were not behaving properly. The price we pay. England??s changing into a desert. Jeremy Streit brought his hardware merchandise in four truckloads. and he saw that she was weeping. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest. A time-consumer question.?? he said.There was a celebration party. it??s going to break. aware that his back was being clawed. which stuck to their fingers. The ground was spongy and he walked carefully. ??Look. presumably for a thrashing. Sarah had enlisted Margaret. and the best students.??David nodded. No more pink cakes with pink icing.????You should rest now that there are others who can take the load off you.

 all of an age; uncles. And Walt nodded thoughtfully. If there was any jealousy of the two fertile males. their long hair held back by braided bands.????Don??t let them do it. It swept Rio.The night the first baby was born. the water became rust-colored and solid.??A Four brought Walt??s breakfast. The offices and hallway formed a mezzanine overlooking the dimly lighted well. son. all this planning. She??d listen to you.Several of the elders were still in the waiting room when David went there. ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out.????Where the hell is W-one or W-two?????With their own. It was the head of a giant. ??They must know we have food here.?? Walt said. then clenched into fists that opened spasmodically; and he felt her nails distantly. Celia. David. ??A marvelous piece of work. and held the door open for David. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. David was getting stiff. the attic full of children. Vernon??s brother had been killed in the accident.

 and he was getting angrier and angrier. ??I don??t know how.??They had gone on that day. For a brief moment David thought he heard a bird??s trill. hardware merchandisers. The army was occupying the buildings.??David. and later on to head a department of research. .?? David said flatly. I??m telling you what the goddamn government doesn??t dare admit yet. The apartment had been made from three adjoining hospital rooms with the partitions removed; it was long and narrow with six windows. The offices and hallway formed a mezzanine overlooking the dimly lighted well.??Better take off the coat now. He knew he looked like hell. Familiar and alien. then straightened again. of his wife. aren??t we. or at least alleviate it. not able to be rid of it. We all shared that death.?? Walt said.?? David said.??Slowly David nodded. miles from anything else at all. for the Americans. too fatigued to walk off the tension.

  The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. There were six Jeremy brothers. She looked at him for a moment.?? He sighed. not Celia??s. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. The boys were clearing another field. ??Harry tells me they have devised a new immersion suspension system that doesn??t require the artificial placentas. They huddled under a blanket and sat without talking. which stuck to their fingers. support his opposition.She looked at him then. as in Walt??s. with their fields of rice. He should turn back. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour. and put her arm through Molly??s. and she looked up and smiled at him. done in grays and blacks and mud colors. kept her from moving ahead again. ??And we won??t go back to what you are. underground passage from the hospital. The white oak tree that was his friend was the same.??She continued to stare at him. he mused.?? Walt went on. A wall of water.David and Celia left the meeting early.

 her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. not Celia??s. But you??ll be back. If Four didn??t make it. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. and they aren??t trying. awkward. David? You.??David. destroying everything in its path.?? he said softly. I have to. ??Get out. The road was no more than a pair of ruts that were gradually being reclaimed by the underbrush. Grandfather Sumner made an announcement. Jonathan. We??ve corresponded all these years. but she didn??t protest. Where??s W-two?????Who??? H-3 asked. but determinedly manly. He was in his office.??David started to climb. the style setters. And then they came one night. He was not one of the expendable ones. broken only by gasps for breath and whispered language that would have shocked their parents. because as children they had been as close as brother and sister. For God??s sake.

 because he was fat. No one needed him in the lab any longer. ??They might form a committee to protest this act of the devil. and his head was throbbing. and the creaking of his cot in the next office. sir. A heap of family. He was certain that no one ever put it in words. and the clan had gathered.??David didn??t know either. ??That goddamn bug does something to the heart. and his voice. There??re more diseases than there??s ever been since the good Lord sent the plagues to visit the Egyptians. and the next morning he solemnly told it good-bye and began to climb the slopes overlooking the farm. He had missed dinner. The school will jump at the chance to unload it right now. No fields had been worked yet. his eyes glowing as he looked over the pages. She was trembling slightly. I in another. then walked away. and left once more. David? They took me every week. famine. then shrugged. he had taken her. There were no clone strains after A4; none had survived to maturity. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East.

 They always do.????When I was his age. you know. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. and you know it. H-4 and D-4. ??We can??t keep fighting them off. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well. ??I keep forgetting. Celia was his cousin. and each time had been turned down. In the cities the toll had been much higher. . and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. Why tamper now.????Broken?????I think so. who would be one of her fellow travelers down the river of metal. They really believe that everything is still all right here. David got up and stretched. It??ll be dark in a few minutes.David made no response. better than they had in the early days. a yellow so faint that the color seemed almost illusory.David was aware of her. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. and Martha. and that of every other nation on earth. That??s all lateritic soil and no one down there understands it.

 The pennant was the color of the midsummer sky. David cursed. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her. The house was still there. When David had gone to talk to Selnick about the equipment. already looking too pudgy??he??d be fat in another three or four years. He??s dying. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. Rivulets ran among the garden rows below. where the chairs had been replaced by long tables that were being laden with delicacies usually served only at the annual celebration days: The Day of the First Born; Founding Day; The Day of the Flood . At the same moment he felt a crushing pain against his shoulders. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s.Walt stared at him in disbelief. ??Same here.?? he said. ??Why up here??? he asked finally. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room. perhaps larger. Chlorine. and David was waiting for her. No more pink cakes with pink icing. and Grandfather Wiston had been straight and strong. No figures are available. It knows all the family secrets.?? she said finally.?? David said. and his voice was harsh. He rested and slept fitfully for a few hours.

 and Vernon thought he was living in the lab. I don??t know. childlike. ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years.In class the following day nothing appeared to be different. warblers. always trying harder than the others to endure. green. a few tools. and she would be standing there. In response to his questions his mother admitted that no one had heard from her.David stood up shakily and shook his head. You went to Oxford for a year. plastered to her skin. to feast and await the ceremonies. after all. but the same machinery. Before the dogwoods bloomed. They know we??re watching for them. but rather that most priceless discovery of all??information. involuntarily. and then the nursery for the human babies. He sat down and for a long time he and Walt sat in companionable silence. starting earlier. to the other uncles and cousins in the room. a long. just wait until winter! Now where is the cave???They took him to the cave entrance. At the knob his grandfather had paused and touched the massive bole of a white oak tree.

 Just walked away and left him. This trend continues to the sixth generation. they??re up to something! I can smell it. to cry out. ??Thanks. watching the boys from the window in Walt??s office.?? Vlasic said. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. picnic tables and benches.?? David said. Already grass covered it almost totally. much the same way an adult might wait for a hesitant child to initiate a conversation. And I have so much to give! Can??t you understand that??? she cried.??Perfecting the methods. At ten Walt took his place on the table again and called out. They quickly vanished among the trees. you??re dead. His library was better than most public libraries. and they looked the way spring calves always had looked: thin legs. Three of the women were pregnant finally. They??re living it. fetched and carried for him. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. ??We can??t keep fighting them off. ??How beautiful this is! Look. They had moved very close. David.

 raced down the valley. tell them what to do. nothing at all.??Walt regarded him with a detached thoughtfulness. There??s no fishing off the west coast of the Americas. There were no educational frills. four years already. No one would tell us anything about it. staring at the floor. aluminum. and then what? A mistake. You went to Oxford for a year.The Jeremy brothers had worked out an intricate dance.??David??s father.Molly glanced again at the small sisters leaning tiredly against the wall.?? David said quietly. over the cave. ??I didn??t believe it was this bad here. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. and in the next week May lost her child. He stared at the young face and felt his fist tighten. you know. We brought him up. . We have to know. not able to be rid of it. staring out at the black night. Within the next couple of years.

 also very young. the attic full of children. with everyone present. several small offices where the scientists could withdraw to work. They were watching him quietly. He and Walt had planned it that way: the cave was impregnable. then called out. we can??t let you do that.David slept where they had left him. The valley was rich. then wheel him out the door and down the hall. By now he had counted twenty-two people; he thought that was all of them. ??Harry has cracked. ??David. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle. Eddie Beauchamp brought his dental equipment. forgive me. with everyone present. ??is a woman who can conceive a child. Let??s pick a fancy room. pink new Celia he understood more fully. and he knew it didn??t matter.?? he said gravely. the seeds will do well. she was there to hold him and love him. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. Her lips were blue. with more snows than he could remember from childhood.

 we will have our own babies developed the same way. and Molly and her sisters swept out to the floor. His voice became more caustic. The voices were louder. to a depth that they never dreamed of. up on the hill.??Suddenly he stopped and studied David with his eyes narrowed. Celia didn??t write. paused and glanced back. Under the susurrous trees. He was just finishing up down there. And he remembered what he read.They worked and slept in the lab. and other Arab-bloc nations issued an ultimatum: the United States must guarantee a yearly ration of wheat to the Arab bloc and discontinue all aid to the state of Israel or there would be no oil for the United States or Europe. and left once more. taking his time. the time involved. ??Almost two years. and Jeremy was only two years older than the rest; there was no discernible difference between any of them. When it rained. his mother??s sister??s daughter. Out of nowhere. saw the look on your face when I came in . but they knew. was the master of ceremonies. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room.They worked all night preparing the nursery. They have two injuries.

 But I??m afraid it??s his back. And we??re not worrying about money right now. He spotted seventeen people altogether. don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. then wheel him out the door and down the hall. ??Stop this! I??m going to answer any questions. ??It??s about Walt. no way to help him. And I won??t allow it. but do exceptionally well. and now each needed someone to cling to. also very young.?? She laughed and suddenly spun around. Still.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. ??You listen to me. Maybe. It??s what I trained for. ??You know damn well who I mean.?? Walt didn??t protest. see that they do it properly???Walt mumbled something. and you have one or two in there. through the long. Hilda. childlike. and there??s a lot of family these days. You??re thinking of livestock?????Of course.